I recently posted an interesting Yamaha XS650 by this same shop (Loaded Gun Customs), and now they have this cafe’d 1989 HD Sportster up for sale. It’s definitely got some nice mechanical bits on it (the rear-sets and clip-ons), and it has a nice simple look to it. My own Sportster hasn’t been converted quite this far yet, but its getting there.

This bike is probably a 1200, but the seller doesn’t actually say. However, they did put new 10:1 pistons in it, and the cylinders look awfully new, so I would guess they plopped a 883 to 1200 upgrade kit on it and called it a day. It is missing the headlight adjustment nut cover, which is kind of odd given that the rider would have to look at the exposed bolthead and any pooling water every time they rode the bike.

Anyways, there are 2 days left in the auction, and the price is just over $3K. Reserve hasn’t been met, and the Buy-It-Now price is $5,200, so your guess is as good as mine as to what the reserve price has been set at. This is a pretty nice example of a Sportster cafe compared to most that we see…

I haven’t posted too many Buells in the blog, but with the assumed passing of Buell I felt like this beautiful street fighter certainly deserves to represent. And if we are lucky, Harley will find someone to sell the brand to, much like GM did with Hummer and SAAB.

I don’t really have much to say about the bike as the pictures speak for themselves. It is obvious that a lot of work went into creating this masterful example of the street fighter genre. My favorite thing about this bike is the paint, as the flat black paint with orange highlighting is a really nice execution of the traditional Harley colors while maintaining a distinct persona. The Forcewinder intake is cool looking, but isn’t the highest flowing of the aftermarket intakes for the Sportster/Buell motor.

There are exactly 2 days left in the auction, and the price is currently $1,925 with 2 bidders. Reserve hasn’t been met, so bidding will need to go higher before this bike sells. This is a beautiful bike that should make the buyer very, very happy…

Parts is parts. At least that’s what the guy manning the register at my local fast food joint said to me. And then I found this bike listed on eBay. At least I think it’s a bike. The only thing I know for sure is that it is a bunch of parts lying on the ground and in boxes that the seller claims is an XLCR.

Now I’ve posted lots of XLCRs since I started this blog, and I recognize many of the parts as having come off of an XLCR. But is this a nearly complete XLCR as stated by the seller? Who can say. But as the advertisement from Wendy’s said so long ago: “First they take a bunch of little parts and then they press the into one big part, and then they cut it into little parts. Parts is parts!”

If you choose to bid on this bike, and if you win the auction, I foresee a long project in your future. And I think there is a good chance for an epic failure to occur. Good luck to whom ever wins this bike…

If you own a 2003 or older Sportster, this might just be your lucky day. Up for auction on eBay right now is this Storz road racing tank. The seller claims it is new, and it really looks unused. Too bad my cafe’d sportster is a 2005, and no one really makes a tank for the newer rubber-mount bikes. Bidding is only at $207 with less than 20 hours left. This could be a chance to get one of these nearly $1K tanks for much less than retail. Good luck!!!

Finally! My wish has come true. Someone selling a 1977 HD XLCR with which they valued having a ride-worthy bike more than a “collectible” museum piece. This seller claims to have a motor built out of aftermarket parts (no Harley shite as an original rebuild using those parts didn’t work out so well for the seller). Not only is the engine gone through, but it has Ohlins shocks, Progressive fork springs, and stainless steel brake lines.

Now for the bad news. The stock drag-bar was replaced with some funky chromed pseudo-superbike bars (they actually look a bit taller than that). That’s it. There doesn’t appear to be any other bad news. And the auction is currently only at $5,500 with two days left (reserve not yet met). So if you are willing to replace the bars with something more suitable, or if the higher bars are more to your liking, this might be a perfect XLCR for the discerning AMF collector or aficionado! Good luck with the auction!

Okay, I’m sure this isn’t the most expensive cafe racer ever. But it is definitely the most expensive one I’ve ever posted. And it isn’t even an auction. $25K Buy-It-Now. And it’s in England…

What we have here is a Hogbitz cafe racer that is easily one of the more expensive Sportsters I’ve ever seen. What a beautiful bike. Now that it’s spring, the bikes are coming out of the woodwork, and I get to blog about some pretty cool machines. Hogbitz, in case you didn’t know, is a British company that takes Sportsters through 2003 and converts them to cafe racers for a fee (About $12-13K USD including bike for their most basic conversion). What we are looking at here is a very nice conversion that is being priced appropriately, but perhaps out of reach for most of us. Hopefully. I can finish the conversion of my own 2005 Sportster to something like this for much less than $25K even including my original purchase price. I am intrigued to see if this sells…
(Links below are to eBay and the actual bike being sold, the link in the text above is to Hogbitz)

Here’s a really well done last-generation Sportster cafe racer. Nearly everything that can be done to it has been done. Only thing missing in my humble opinion is longer shocks in the back. Something like a 13.5″ adjustable Ohlins, or the Progressive 15″ shocks.

The price is kind of high for this bike. It is up on eBay with a Buy-It-Now of $8,500, but the auction price is starting at $7,400 and it has zero bidders.

I have to admit that I wish my Sportster looked like this. I have a feeling that mine would out-handle this one, but in looks and motor this one leaves mine for dead. Oh well. Maybe I can make some progress soon…

This is a really clean example of an H-D XLCR. Since you are at this site, I am pretty sure you have heard of it before, but if you haven’t, it was a factory (mostly) cafe racer from Harley-Davidson that was produced only in 1977 and 1978. Under-powered at 61hp compared to it’s contemporary brethren, but with a full helping of somewhat European styling, it was never a sales hit and disappeared from Harley’s bike roster after just over 3,100 machines were produced. It was something of an oxymoronic bike, as current owners of Harley-Davidsons didn’t care for the styling, and speed-freaks could go 20 miles an hour faster on the top-end with a stock CB750.

Be that as it may, the bike for sale here is very, very clean and has been restored to within an inch of its life. Good luck finding a nicer example, unless it is one that was hermetically sealed as it rolled off the factory floor. The auction hasn’t met reserve yet, but there are 6 days left. I’ll post a “How Much Was It Worth?” on the back end…

I am really torn by bikes like this. Converting a Sportster into a cafe racer is kind of a daunting process. There aren’t a lot of sources for true cafe-styled parts for these bike (especially 2004+ rubber-mount bikes), and when you tell the parts guy at your local shop what you are doing, most likely he or she will give you a blank stare.

So if you do manage to find the parts, then you have to do a good job with the conversion. With this particular bike, it is certainly beautiful, and has a number of really nice parts attached to it: Storz rear-sets, nice race-style seat, beautiful H-D themed paint, and a great intake/exhaust combo. But a well-built cafe racer is more than a simple sum of its parts.

In this case, I am concerned that the bike looks lowered front and rear. For my personal Sportster cafe racer, I actually raised the bike 1″ in the front and 2″ in the rear to try for more ground clearance. And I don’t really want to be careening through corners while trying to maintain a grip on the shiny bits at the end of these drag bars. Cafe racers typically have a form-follows-function aesthetic, while this bike is trying to go both ways. Like Storz rear-sets on a lowered bike.

Now, if I could bolt my 15″ shocks to this bike, add my clip-ons, and put some stiff Race-Tech springs in the front end, this would be a great bike…

Ahhh. A nice XLCR from Harley-Davidson with many good mods to the motor from the current owner. Maybe my bike will end up being a spiritual successor to the XLCR, but probably never as nice as this one. I like it when people build up bikes in a low-key way, such that it is more about function than form. And it certainly appears that the build was done in a meticulous manner. That would be a nice bike for a fast Sunday morning ride along Mines Rd.